title: [Clinical experience with gemcitabine treatment for metastatic breast cancer].
abstract: It is difficult to cure recurrent or metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Therefore, it is important to continue treatment for MBC with maintenance of quality of life (QOL). Gemcitabine has been approved for MBC since February 2010. We administered gemcitabine to 39 patients with MBC between February 1, 2010 and March 31, 2012. Depending on the case, taxane or trastuzumab was added. Almost all patients had received prior chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. The median age of patients was 61 years (range, 33-82 years), and the median number of previous treatment regimens was 3 (range, 0-6). The response rate was 15.4%, the disease control rate was 56.4%, and the clinical benefit rate was 33.3%. The main hematological adverse event was neutropenia, and the main non-hematological adverse event was fatigue. Neutropenia could be managed by reducing the gemcitabine dose or withdrawing treatment. Adverse events requiring hospitalization were not observed. These findings suggest that gemcitabine-based regimens are feasible in terms of efficacy and maintenance of QOL for patients with MBC.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Breast Oncology, National Hospital Organization Shikoku Cancer Center.
authors.forename: Mototsugu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Fumitaka
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.forename: Sachiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kiyoto
authors.forename: Mina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Daiten
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Takabatake
authors.forename: Seiki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takashima
authors.forename: Kenjiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aogi
authors.forename: Shozo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohsumi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011788:Quality of Life; D012008:Recurrence; D000093542:Gemcitabine
chemical_list: D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000093542:Gemcitabine